No Sense Of Decency
by Michael Liss I have here in my hand a list of 205 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy. —Joseph McCarthy, February 9, 1950 Seventy-four years later, that phrase, from Senator…
Lincoln’s Trolley Problem: Fort Sumter And Beyond
A World Unsettled: The Supreme Court And The Risks Of Activism
by Michael Liss January 1, 2024. Happy New Year! Just eleven months and five shopping days before Election 2024. Whether you find it comforting that 2024 also happens to contain an extra day might be the best marker of how Political Seasonal Affective Disorder has impacted you. Personally, I haven’t been sleeping particularly well. The…
1968 Part IV: After Chicago, The End Game
by Michael Liss The broken-down jalopy that was Hubert Humphrey’s campaign wheezed its way out of Chicago and headed…anywhere but there. The Convention was an utter disaster. The only “bump” in the polls was a shove backwards, and Humphrey seemed to have nothing with which to shove back. He had no coherent message on the…
1968 Part III: Chicago
1968 Part II: The Center Vaporizes
by Michael Liss There was a sense everywhere, in 1968, that things were giving. That man had not merely lost control of his history, but might never regain it. —Garry Wills, Nixon Agonistes: The Crisis of the Self-Made Man Last month, I wrote about Eugene McCarthy’s Vietnam-based primary challenge to Lyndon Baines Johnson’s reelection campaign,…
Darkness At The End Of The Tunnel: 1968 And The Destruction Of LBJ’S Presidency.
by Michael Liss Some Presidencies just come apart: The men occupying the office are objectively unable to manage the chaos around them. Herbert Hoover’s might be thought of as in this category. James Buchanan’s as well. Perhaps Jimmy Carter’s. Others, like Richard Nixon’s, die of self-harm, unmourned. Still others end in “fatigue”—their party, or the…
A Cancer On The Presidency: The Tragedy Of Richard Nixon
by Michael Liss Damp and clammy. Last week was the 49th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation. Go back to your half-forgotten copy of Woodward and Bernstein’s The Final Days, or John Dean’s Blind Ambition, or Teddy White’s Breach of Faith: The Fall of Richard Nixon, turn pages, browse a bit, and see if you don’t…
Your Rights: Roberts’ Rules Of Order
by Michael Liss It has become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary. …[W]e do not mistake this plainly heartfelt disagreement for disparagement. It is important that the public not be misled either. Any such misperception would be…
An Intemperate Man: The Impeachment of Justice Samuel Chase
by Michael Liss On their part they have retired into the Judiciary as a stronghold. There the remains of Federalism are to be preserved and fed from the treasury, and from that battery all the works of Republicanism are to be beaten down and erased. —Thomas Jefferson to John Dickenson, December 19, 1801 So frustrating, so…
Midnight Judges And Jefferson’s Battle Over The Federal Courts
by Michael Liss November 1800. In the Presidential rematch between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson we have a clear loser, but not yet a winner. John Adams will be returning home. Thomas Jefferson, thanks to a bizarre tie in the Electoral College with his erstwhile running mate, Aaron Burr, will have to wait for the…
Edmund Phelps’ “My Journeys In Economic Theory”
A Complex Man: Lincoln At The Lyceum
How Do I Know My Youth Is All Spent?
by Michael Liss In the America I see, the permanent politician will finally retire…. We’ll have term limits for Congress. And mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old. —Nikki Haley, age 51, announcing her candidacy. Yes, she did. Nikki Haley went there. Of course, her ostensible target is America’s best-known octogenarian (the…
Hear No Evil: The South And The Gag Rule
by Michael Liss However tiresome to others, the most indefatigable orator is never tedious to himself. The sound of his own voice never loses its harmony to his own ear; and among the delusions, which self-love is ever assiduous in attempting to pass upon virtue, he fancies himself to be sounding the sweetest tones. —John…
Elon Musk Buys Twitter, Gets On Route 230
by Michael Liss I’ve always liked this image. It’s quiet, it sneaks up on you, brings back old memories of pizza parlors, barbershop walls and drug-store soda fountains. Norman Rockwell’s “Four Freedoms” had been inspired by FDR’s 1941 Annual Message, given at a time when Germany had swept through much of Europe, and democracy was…
Books, Bookcases, And Book People
by Michael Liss The word arrived from the furniture store. They have come! After five months of supply-chain suspended animation, our 15 feet of 72-inch-high bookcases are here. Bibliophiles everywhere (well, everywhere in my family) raised their voices in praise. I’m excited. Seriously excited. My wife, son, and daughter are excited. While we already had…
Past Glories, Dismal Present?
Second Monday In October: The Legitimacy Crisis
by Michael Liss Simply because people disagree with an opinion is not a basis for questioning the legitimacy of the court. —Chief Justice John Roberts Ah, if only it were that simple. It’s not, so fasten your seatbelt because the men and women in black are back. First, the good news. The Court welcomed its…